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"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

Unverified Voracity Mesmerizes With Ice Cream

We will carry him through the city of God on a golden palanquin, crying out "oh child of wonder, share with us your one true vision." If you're like me—a shiftless loner who can watch TV during the day and really likes the national soccer team—you no doubt remember the searing vision from last year's Italy-Brazil Confederations Cup matchup. Someone made an animated gif of it.

I know you will never stop watching that, and I'm sorry.

Holy cow. This will mark the second time in a week something interesting has been said by a West Virginia newspaper that had nothing to do with Rich Rodriguez. (Floating an apparently legit rumor that Chuck Heater is a potential Jay Hopson replacement was the other.) Imagine this alternate history as told by Mike Brey:

“Four or five years ago my athletic director called me in for a meeting and told me to be prepared. We’re going to the Big Ten,” Brey said, so matter-of-factly that you figured everyone knew about it. But that really wasn’t the case.

No one knew that Notre Dame stood on the doorstep of jumping to the Big Ten a few years back. They knew they had the chance to go, that the Big Ten wanted them, but that were close enough that the Irish athletic director was calling coaches in and telling them to prepare for the move, that it was a sure thing … well, can you say Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College.

“It changed at the midnight hour,” Brey said, “but he was preparing me for that.”

I have no penetrating insights here. Just… wow. This will prompt even more Mike White shrines across ND Nation.

Another departure? Probably not. USF fired Jim Leavitt after he went Woody Hayes on one of his players and then lied about it extensively. This led to a number of articles floating Calvin Magee as a possible replacement, in which he'd "expressed an interest," albeit not publicly.

Nothing could be confirmed late Monday, but speculation was heavy that the Bulls could be a match for Holtz, the son of a coaching great who has guided the Pirates to back-to-back Conference USA championships.

That's a non-entity of a statement there, but there's an article in the competing paper that says Holtz has been contacted by USF:

"I have gotten a call to find out if I had interest in talking to them,'' he said. "Obviously, there is interest from a standpoint of the league they play in, the Big East, and my parents live here in Orlando, my wife is from Port Charlotte. We would have four grandparents right there. There are a lot of positives to it. I think it's definitely an up-and-coming program so, yeah, there would be interest.''

It's rare to see a guy with a job make a public statement of interest and not get the gig. Michigan looks like it will hold on to Magee, then.

(About Guptill and Deblois: It's uncertain whether or not they'll be on campus next year. They are eligible for this draft and usually that means they'll be on campus the season after they get drafted, but when they committed they were expected to be members of the 2011 class. Robbie Czarnik leaving opens up a spot for one, and it's possible they'll bring the other in early with the money they'd earmarked for (argh) Jack Campbell.)

Items of note other than "argh Jack Campbell": Merrill and Moffatt have dropped, Moffatt considerably. These are just North American skater rankings. Add in Euros and goalies and Merrill projects as a late first or early second rounder, Fallon a third-rounder, and Moffatt somewhere in rounds three to five. Moffatt was getting hyped as a possible top ten pick and a definite first rounder. That might be bad for their instant impact but better for the long term future of the program if they decide to stick around longer. Also a possibility: the CSB rankings, which can be wack, are a little wack.

On the other hand, Fallon keeps moving up and Clare is in a nice sweet spot for a stay-at-home defenseman who will be around for three or four years. The above-listed players and USHL D Mac Bennett are the entire class. Since Bennett went in the second round last year, that's impressive. Every player Michigan is bringing in next year is expected to be or has been drafted, and it seems likely the majority of the class will be off the board when the fourth round rolls around. If it makes you feel any better about this year, no one in State's current class is even on the list.

The timing on this is fantastic. So, yes, John Beilein got an extension after one of the most disappointing losses of his Michigan career, one that finally closed the door on all but the most insane Michigan fan's NCAA tourney hopes. Predictably, people were outraged on the radio. Predictably, Mike Rosenberg rushed to write an article that reads like "a Goofus and Gallant article with Goofus (RR) mostly standing just outside the frame" according to zingy MGoBoard poster wolverine1987.

Assorted e-pinions that, in retrospect, are directed at people who won't listen anyway:

This was not decided after the season started.

Yes, obviously David Brandon knew this was happening. Conspiracy theories about Bill Martin dropping a nasty present in Brandon's lap are transparently silly.

The buyout is the thing that matters and I doubt that it increased significantly, if at all, should Beilein's tenure go the same direction Amaker's did. I think that point is moot—the NCAA bid will buy him enough time to get a full roster of his guys in and his history indicates that he'll be successful enough in the long run that he will likely retire a Wolverine. If it's not, though, a few hundred K here or there is not going to prevent Michigan from making a move.

Short of massacring an entire village of Vietnamese peasants, Beilein is here for a long time, extension or no.

I once knew an autistic kid--who pretty much displayed normative behavior otherwise--but had a compulsion to touch food to his nose before he could eat it. I wonder if this boy has a similar affliction, or if he was just bored and liked the cool feeling on his face. Either way I can't stop watching.

Good stuff as usual Brian. I have some experience in basketball and I can say with confidence that John Beilein will not end up like Tommy Amaker. I've sharde my thoughts on the basketball team and while I expect an NIT bid, I think the fact that Michigan basketball hasn't had an extensive winning streak in years is the reason for the pessimism surrounding the team. I don't think they'll make the tourney, but if their turnovers get back to normal and their defense maintains itself they will be tough to beat.

I was in East Lansing at a Red Robin, and I jumped up and screamed about the holding on Hall. Then I had to do like a second hop thing when the whole restaurant stood up a second later -- we didn't know what happened. It took a replay to get my head around it.

Sparty has to do a whole O'Brien thing just to convince himself that he's relevant in the Big Ten, rather than the response to, "oh wait, you guys have another school in your state, right?" Once he can make that transition, he can convince himself that 2+2=5, that the length of one second on Earth can vary, and that anything bad that ever happened to their program is the fault of Michigan and Notre Dame and fairies.

I like you are a big soccer fan. Do you plan on doing anything for the World Cup? I know some people around here hate soccer, which was evident from the pure hatred shown at Grant Wahl and his twitter updates during the US vs. Costa Rica game.

I'm just curious on your take of the US national team. I just think that for the US to have any chance at a deep run we need to get rid of Bob Bradley.

Greetings from Bolivia.

"It's special how the real true people hang together. And if you don't support the program you're not a true Michigan guy. It's that simple." - Gary Moeller

The below is taken from an e-mail by a Tennessee guy around the start of the 2009 season, re: Woodson...

6. Eric Berry is better than Charles Woodson. Deal with it.

and also:

Woodson was a great college player. But the fact is, they changed the rules for the Heisman JUST FOR THAT YEAR.

Manning's goody-goody image had worn a lot of people out and they were looking for someone to challenge him.

The fact that ESPN didn't have the SEC contract and Wuerffel won it the year before made it even harder on Manning...ESPN wanted to promote someone from one of THEIR conferences, lest an SEC player win it 2 yrs. in a row.

Even Chris Fowler has come out and said that he regrets what ESPN did that year in campaigning for Woodson and that it snowballed.

Woodson is a nice DB who won't even make the HOF. But he's had a solid career. Manning, on the other hand, will go down as one of the top 5 QBs (if not players) to ever put on a uniform.

Manning's every flaw was highlighted that year. Woodson, on the other hand, had some great highlights, but when he would make a bad play (like David Boston burning him deep for a TD against Ohio State) it was like ESPN would pretend it never happened.

There really is no argument. DBs never win the Heisman for as reason...because they don't affect the game like a QB or even a RB. If they did, Deion Sanders would have won it....he was a MUCH, MUCH better player than was Woodson,

... but nobody even considered him for the Heisman. There have been MANY great players in the past on defense who were better than Woodson, but never won the Heisman. Most weren't even considered. Reggie White, Hugh Green, Kevin Hardy, Shawn Springs, Derrick Thomas, Bruce Smith, Lavar Arrington, Terrell Buckley, Kenny Easley...why didn't they win the Heisman? Or even make the list of finalists (except for Green)?

You can pick his arguments apart if you like (I already did, back August). Don't be too harsh -- other than being a Vols fan and "ESS EEE SEE!" he's a really nice guy. I'm just posting this for the "I told you so" moment.

...I'm really, really glad Woodson won, even though he's a Wolverine. Of your buddy's arguments, none really offer any support for "Charles Woodson was NOT the most outstanding college football player in whatever year that was." The lack of truth in labeling just irks me.